Board of Supervisors Approval

Posted by Warriors Ground Sf5sc on December 14, 2015

In May of 2012, the Golden State Warriors announced plans to privately finance a new arena in San Francisco. At a press conference held along the Embarcadero that month, Warriors owner Peter Guber stated, “We have one mission today, a world class venue.”

Three and a half years later, this plan is as close to reality as it has ever been. On Tuesday, December 8th, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to support the construction of an 18,000 seat arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. After a six-hour long hearing at City Hall, the Warriors emerged victorious.

The Board’s decision would not have been made possible without the widespread community support for the new arena in San Francisco. The morning of the hearing, Warriors hype man Franco Finn kicked off a community rally on the steps of City Hall with over 150 San Franciscans in attendance. Community leaders, small business owners, union labor representatives, and non-profit groups arrived bright and early holding home-made signs with sayings like “Bring the Warriors home” and “Dubs Bring jobs to SF.” As the day carried on, this group of Warriors supporters filed into City Hall to voice their support of the new arena to San Francisco elected officials. During the public comment section of the Board of Supervisors hearing, one arena supporter exclaimed, “When it comes to community support, our bench is deep.”

This coalition of community supporters has come to be known as Warriors Ground SF.

Warriors Ground SF - a neighborhood organization that brings together enthusiastic supporters of the Golden State Warriors’ mixed-use development project in Mission Bay - is about so much more than just basketball. Over the past few years, this coalition has advocated for sound community planning to ensure that the Warriors new arena serves a wide range of interests. Just as Peter Guber stated some three years ago, the goal was a world class arena. Thanks to the Board of Supervisors approval, and widespread community support, this goal is close to becoming reality.